1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a substrate processing apparatus such as a substrate inspection apparatus, a substrate production apparatus and the like and a substrate housing method.
Priority is claimed on Japanese Patent Application No. 2005-81607, filed Mar. 22, 2005, the content of which is incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, upon inspecting outside of a semiconductor wafer (substrate), after picking up the semiconductor wafer set in a cassette by a transportation robot, pre-alignment is performed before transporting to a micro inspection portion. When performing the pre-alignment the semiconductor wafer is placed at a precise position by performing an alignment adjustment with higher precision than the pre-alignment at the micro inspection portion, and after that, micro inspection is performed. After finishing this micro inspection, the semiconductor wafer is set to the cassette by the transportation robot (see, for example, PCT International Publication No. WO 02/21589).
That is, if the center of the semiconductor wafer is shifted 1-2 mm upon transporting the semiconductor wafer from the cassette to the inspection apparatus, then there may be a case where it is impossible to perform the alignment in the micro inspection portion, therefore, the pre-alignment is performed in order to make it possible to perform alignment precisely at the micro alignment portion.
This semiconductor wafer is received by a rotation stage waiting at a predetermined position in the micro inspection portion, and the alignment adjustment with higher precision and the micro inspection are performed. After finishing the micro inspection, the rotation stage returns to the waiting position and the semiconductor wafer is set to the cassette by the transmission robot.
As described above, the alignment with high precision is performed before the micro inspection, however, after the micro inspection, the rotation stage mounting the semiconductor wafer returns to the waiting position automatically, therefore, the semiconductor wafer is received by the transmission robot in a state in which the center is shifted.